Fishery is an important sector in Indian economy, provides employment to millions of people and ensures the country’s food security. At present India is contributing about 4 per cent share among the major marine capture producing countries in the world. The production quantity of Indian fish and fish products through inland and marine has increased over the years due to technological developments in production, captures, processing, distribution, transportation, and storage. This study assesses the export performance at basic level of fish and fish products from India. The global and national level data on marine products production, utilization and trade were collected from Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) websites respectively. The results show that production of world fisheries & aquaculture, utilization of world fisheries and aquaculture products by human over the period from 1986 to 2018 has increased and the trade value of the export of fish at global level during the year 2018 is about 164.1 billion US dollars. China, holds the major share in marine capture production, followed by Peru and Indonesia. In India, Frozen shrimp remained the major export item followed by frozen fish. At present India is contributing about 4 per cent among the major marine capture producing countries in the world. India export majority of the marine products to United States of America, followed by China, South East Asia and European countries. Among Indian states, Andhra Pradesh is the leading exporter, followed by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Kerala. Thus, the performance in production of fish and fish products export shows an increasing trend at national level.

Highlights

• The paper analyzes the production and export status of Indian fisheries sector.
• The fish production over the period from 1980-81 to 2019-20 have increased from 24.42 lakh tonnes to 104.37 lakh tonnes respectively. The frozen shrimp and the frozen fish are the major exportable products from India, which shares 51 per cent and 17 per cent of the total marine exports from India respectively.
• The export of frozen shrimp and frozen fish shows the increasing trend. India exports 26 per cent of the fish and fish products to China followed by 24 per cent to United States of America, South East Asia and European countries of its total exports.